Australian retail turnover still growing in February

Australian consumers are still spending, according to recently released survey data that shows that retail turnover for the month of February increased by 0.7 per cent.

The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Retail Trade figures show that Australian retail turnover increased in February after a rise of 0.5 per cent for the month of January this year.

Online retail turnover contributed 2.8 per cent to total retail turnover in original terms. This is in line with other surveys into online retail figures in Australia, which also show that consumers are continuing to spend despite poor trends in other economic indicators.

The largest contributor to the rise was food (1.2 per cent in seasonally adjusted terms). Other categories that experienced growth in February included household goods (1.8 per cent) and other retailing (1.3 per cent).

Categories that saw a decrease in turnover were clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing, which saw a -0.2 per cent fall; cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services, which declined by -0.4 per cent; and department stores, which was down by a significant -3.2 per cent.

All states and territories saw growth in their retail turnover in seasonally adjusted terms, with the Northern Territory coming out on top in terms of growth rate. However, the largest contributor was still Australia's most populous state, New South Wales, with 0.7 per cent growth. They were followed by Victoria on 0.8 per cent, South Australia on 1.7 per cent, Western Australia on 0.7 per cent, Queensland on 0.2 per cent, the Australian Capital Territory on 1.6 per cent, the Northern Territory on 2.3 per cent and Tasmania on 0.7 per cent.

If you are a company that deals in retail, having high quality accounting software that can handle everything from your cash book to your purchases and creditors is essential to running your business successfully when consumers are still looking to spend.